Would you like to blow up a planet? Crash a couple of stars into each other? Create a black hole? These days, astronomy students are using hands-on, virtual reality simulations of cosmic processes such as these to learn more about the inner workings of the Universe.

In this demonstration session, you get to try it out for yourself.

Erik Zackrisson is an Associate Professor in astronomy and the leader of a pedagogical development project aiming to incorporate virtual reality in undergraduate astronomy courses at Uppsala University.